Title

Authors

Source

Casco Bay Weekly

Date

10-17-2002

Pages

7

Abstract

"City" piece reporting that Curtis Kise, 38, who recently opened his used bookstore, Book Traders, at 561 Congress Street in Portland, is angry because it took him about twelve weeks to get his business license, after paying the requisite $124 and being told that the license would take about six weeks to obtain the license. The delay forced Kise to live off credit cards, while being forced to pay out $2,400 a month for store space he couldn't open to the public for months. Brandi Maxwell, the business license administrator for the city, cannot explain the delay, except to say it was probably due to the time it took the state to complete a criminal background check on Kise. The state Bureau of Identification in the Maine Department of Public Safety, likewise cannot explain the delay, saying it is running a four-week backlog, not a 12-week backlog.